Churches burned down in radical Hindu attacks

Published: Tuesday, December 29, 1998

SURAT, India (AP) - Hindu radicals burned down a church in western India and stormed three others on Monday with axes, iron rods, and hammers, sending Christian missionaries fleeing for safety, police and witnesses said.

Mobs set ablaze a church made of bamboo in the remote village of Mulchand, 50 miles south of Surat, a prosperous town in Gujarat State, police said.

Attackers also ransacked three other churches and a prayer hall in three nearby villages, missionaries said.

Police said were they were unable to confirm if any of the attacks took place.

"All three churches have been badly damaged," said the Rev. T.V. Gaikwad. "A mob with axes, iron bars and hammers attacked the churches," he said.

Police have arrested 38 people in connection with the attacks, State Interior Minister Haren Pandya said.

The church attacks began Christmas Day.

Members of two right-wing Hindu parties blamed for most of the violence are angered by the missionaries' efforts to convert poor, often illiterate tribal people.

They say the missionaries use the promise of jobs to get people to convert.

Police guarded churches in cities, but do not have the manpower to protect all the small, makeshift chapels of wood, bamboo and brick in villages in the region.

Attacks on Christians, who make up 2 percent of India's nearly 1 billion population, have increased since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in India in March.

On Monday, members of the two radical Hindu parties - Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad - held rallies across Gujrat to protest what they called forcible conversion of low-caste Hindus. Both parties are allies of the ruling BJP.

"Wake up Hindus!" and "Down with Christian missionaries!" they chanted outside government offices.

On Sunday, a mob gutted a Pentecostal church in Varki, a village 55 miles south of Surat. Seven people were wounded when the village chief opened fire on the attackers, police said.

On Christmas Day, militants attacked two Roman Catholic schools, a hospital and three churches. More than 10 people, including two priests, were injured by stone-throwers.

Right-wing activists returning from a rally in the village of Ahwa on Friday stoned Christian women coming out of a church, said the Rev. Cedric Prakash, director of the St. Xaviers Social Service Society.

Some Hindus blamed Christians for the latest violence.

"I'm not saying the attack by the Hindus didn't take place. We're saying that ours was the reaction. They attacked us first," said Ashwin Modi, president of Bajrang Dal.

"We will not allow this to happen again. The next time they hit us, the consequences will be dangerous," Modi said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for an organization that fights for the rights of tribal people accused the state government of supporting the Hindu militants.

"The attacks are under state patronage," said Madhusudan Mistry of the Eklavya Sanghathan organization.

Prakash said Hindu groups fear they will lose votes because of the missionaries' influence with tribal people.